Blendena and Barley from Michigan

Our Story:The cry went out throughout my office building, “Someone just dumped a dog in the parking lot!”

There he was, a beautiful light brown, medium-sized dog and he was limping, something was wrong with his front foreleg. But it didn’t seem to faze him too much, he was wagging his tail and very happy to let all of us fawn over him. One of our gals volunteered to take this handsome boy to her vet to have him checked out and then we would look for a home for him, because in this city, you do whatever you can to avoid sending any animal to the local shelter, especially one that needs medical attention.

One of our ladies had seen the person who had dropped this little guy. She said he was a young man…maybe 17 or 18 and he drove into our packed parking lot at noon…went to the back of the lot and stopped his car and got out with the dog. She thought he was just getting out to walk by the river that runs in back of our building. She watched him for a bit and then to her dismay, he walked quickly back to his car … got in and drove away leaving his dog behind. Of course, initially, everyone was angry at whoever would do this to this little guy. But, as I thought about the story, I concluded that this young man was doing the best he could for his loved pet.

We are a Community Action Center – Head Start to be exact, and anyone that lives around our area knows that our building is comprised of 98% women. He drove into the parking lot at NOON, he knew someone would see him and the dog.

We didn’t know it at the time, but our furry friend was part Pitbull (and Shar-Pei) and there is a horrible ordinance in our city that had this dog been taken to the shelter by his owner, he would have been put down…yes, killed! I choose to believe that this young man could not afford to have his friend’s leg fixed, probably could not afford to have him fixed and he knew he could not take him to the shelter and so I think this young man did what he thought was the best thing to do….leave him and hope that someone would take care of him.

The vet said that our furry little guy was in great shape and had been well taken care of. His front foreleg had been broken and had already started to heal and he decided not to re-break it and hoped that casting it might keep it pretty straight for him. The leg never healed quite right, so when he is sitting, the leg gives him a little look of “attitude” The vet did a full physical, gave shots and neutered him…all for $85. Imagine that!

A home had been found for him and when he was ready to be picked up at the vet’s, she backed out at the last minute and I am so thankful to her for that. Yep, I went to the vet’s and picked him up and you would have thought that he and I had been an “item” forever. He jumped all over me, licking and wagging his tail…he knew we were supposed to be together. One of the vet technicians had named him Barley because of his color and I saw no reason to change that name, because it fit him.

Barley and I have been together for 7 years now. He opened my heart and we have adopted other rescues…LilGirl (pitbull mix) and two cats, Bear and Tessie. My heart and my life is very fullbecause of Barley, he is special. He is my friend, my comfort blanket at night (even though he snores) and the keeper of all my secrets. Who could ask for anything more?